European Conference - GEO Welcomes FP7 Constanta, Romania 15 September 2006

1. European Conference - GEO Welcomes FP7Constanta, Romania15 September 2006 United Nations platform for space-based information for disaster management and emergency response Niklas Hedman United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

2. Contents • Introductory overview of COPUOS and the role of OOSA • United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER) • Background • Focus of the proposed initiative • Functions of the proposed initiative

3. COPUOS and the role of OOSA • United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) - established in 1959, 67 member States and 20 organizations with observer status, annual meetings, two subsidiary bodies: Scientific and Technical Subcommittee; Legal Subcommittee • COPUOS reports to Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly, which adopts annual GA resolution on “international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space” • The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) – 20 staff members, two sections: Committee Services and Research Section; Space Applications Section • Substantive secretariat services to COPUOS, GA, Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities; maintains UN Register of objects launched into outer space; implements the UN Programme on Space Applications • Focus of the proposed initiative • Functions of the proposed initiative

4. United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER) 2006COPUOS report (A/61/20, paras 146-165) • To be implemented as a programme of the Office for Outer Space Affairs under the Director of the Office, as an open network of providers of support • Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs to be responsible for administrative matters associated with United Nations procedures and overall supervision of the programme • The programme would have an office in Beijing and an office in Bonn, Germany • Due consideration to be given to the possibility of having a liaison office in Geneva that would contribute to disseminating and integrating the work of the programme within the humanitarian response community • Programme to report to and receive guidance from the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space through the Office for Outer Space Affairs • Office for Outer Space Affairs to develop a detailed workplan of the programme for 2007 and the biennium 2008-2009 to be considered during the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee meeting in February 2007

5. Background • Conference resolution “The Space Millennium: Vienna Declaration on Space and Human Development” adopted at UNISPACE III, 1999 (A/Conf.184/6): • “implement an integrated, global system, especially through international cooperation, to manage natural disaster mitigation, relief and prevention efforts, especially of an international nature, through Earth observation, communications and other space-based services, making use of existing capabilities and filling the gaps in worldwide satellite coverage” • UNISPACE III+5, 2004 (A/59/174) - Action Team 7 Recommendation: • “establish an international space coordination entity for disaster management, nominally identified as ‘Disaster Management International Space Coordination Organization (DMISCO)’” • General Assembly resolution 59/2 of 20 October 2004: • “a study should be conducted on the possibility of creating an international entity to provide for coordination and the means of realistically optimizing the effectiveness of space-based services for use in disaster management and that the study should be prepared by ad-hoc expert group”

6. Background (Cont.) • Study on the possibility of creating an international entity to provide for coordination and the means of realistically optimizing the effectiveness of space-based services for use in disaster management, presented by ad hoc expert group to Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of COPUOS in 2006 (A/AC.105/C.1/L.285): • Covered topics such as: Impact of disasters on development; Current uses of space-based services to support risk reduction and disaster management activities; Relevant operational and planned programmes and systems; Identified actions that would support the future use of space technology for risk reduction and disaster management; Key functions and potential benefits of the proposed coordinating entity; Organizational scope and nature of the proposed coordinating entity and its relationship with existing and planned international organizations and initiatives; Mobilization of resources and implementation plan • Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, at its forty-ninth session in June 2006 (A/61/20), agreed on a programme to be named: • “United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER)”

7. Focus of the proposed initiative • Being a gateway to space information for disaster management support, serving as a bridge that would connect the disaster management and space communities and being a facilitator of capacity-building and institutional strengthening, by: • being user-driven, that is, the disaster management community should be centrally involved and the work should be carried out to the benefit of the user community • contributing to bridging the gap between the disaster management and space communities by creating a forum where both can meet, and focusing on existing gaps that are limiting the use of space technology in risk reduction and disaster management • contributing to bring together and optimizing access and use of existing and future initiatives and activities of international entities (such as IGOS-P, GEOSS, the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”, ISDR, UNOSAT, RESPOND, GMES etc.) • having informational, coordination and operational functions • carrying out and facilitating capacity-building activities • identifying synergies and building upon common opportunities, in order to avoid duplication in relation to existing international initiatives

8. Functions of the proposed initiative • Should be seen as the first place the user community should contact to obtain information on how to access and use space-based services for risk reduction and disaster management. In order to do this it should be available 24/7 to the user community • Should contribute to the implementation of risk reduction and emergency response activities and projects identified in conjunction with national focal points • Should work closely with national focal points in the identification of viable activities to carry out, contributing to defining the scope of each activity and resources needed, also helping identify possible partnerships and sources of funding • Facilitating the development of risk information at the national level linked to economic development strategies for poverty alleviation • Contributing to the development of regional/subregional assessments of vulnerability • Contributing to the implementation of international programmes or initiatives • Helping facilitate more timely dissemination of available data and information through better coordinated systems for hazard monitoring, prediction, risk assessment, early warning, mitigation and response at the local, national, regional and global levels, guaranteeing that the information to be disseminated reaches the correct end-user

9. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs Vienna International Centre P.O. Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: (+43 1) 26060-4950 Fax: (+43 1) 26060-5830 www.unoosa.org THANK YOU